1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator and a method of controlling the refrigerator.
2. Background
Refrigerators include a plurality of storages for storing food at a frozen state or a refrigerated state. The storages have an open side for allowing access to the food stored in the storages. The storages may include a freezer compartment for storing food in the frozen state and a refrigerator compartment for storing food in the refrigerated state.
A refrigerating system through which refrigerant circulates is driven in such a refrigerator. The refrigerating system includes a compressor, a condenser, an expansion device, and an evaporator. The evaporator may include a first evaporator disposed at a side of a refrigerator compartment, and a second evaporator disposed at a side of a freezer compartment.
Cold air stored in the refrigerator compartment may be cooled through the first evaporator and be then supplied again to the refrigerator compartment. Cold air stored in the freezer compartment may be cooled through the second evaporator and be then supplied again to the freezer compartment. The refrigerant may be selectively supplied to the first or second evaporator and be evaporated.
As such, typical refrigerators are configured such that a plurality of storages are independently cooled through separate evaporators, and refrigerant is supplied to any one of the evaporators to cool one of the storages and stop cooling of the other storages. Thus, simultaneous cooling of the storages is delimited, and one of the storages and the others are selectively or alternately cooled.
In this case, the storage that is cooled is maintained at an appropriate range of temperatures, but temperatures of the storages that are not cooled may increase outside a desired range. In addition, while cooling of one of the storages, it may be sensed that the temperatures of the other storages are outside the normal range. In this case, the other storages cannot be instantly cooled.
As a result, a structure for independently cooling storages cannot supply cold air to a suitable place at a suitable time, thus decreasing operation efficiency of a refrigerator.